


Keith sick during exams

by karmarocks



Series: Keith prompts! [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Sick Keith (Voltron), Sickfic, Sneezing, caretaker shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 14:09:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15390447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karmarocks/pseuds/karmarocks
Summary: The prompt for this one was: College au with Keith sick with a cold during finals and it's making his head foggy and the poor guy is basically dying?





	Keith sick during exams

Keith sat in the library, hunched over his notes with a tissue pressed to his aching nose. He’d been down with a monster of a cold for the past week and a half, all the stress from finals not helping him get over it. He’d caught it from Shiro who had it about two weeks prior, but his boyfriend didn’t know about it and he intended to keep it that way. Shiro had been so stressed from all of his finals landing on the same two days with only a day between them that he hadn’t slept more than three hours at a time in almost a week. After he’d taken his last exam the day before, Keith had led him back to his dorm, tucked him into bed, and left him to sleep for hopefully a long time. Or at least long enough for Keith to get over the bug that was kicking his ass. Keith knew that, realistically, Shiro would probably crash for a day or two at most and then try to help Keith prepare for his exams. That wouldn’t fly because Keith could no longer suppress the symptoms of his raging head cold. Every few minutes he’d be wrenched from his focusing by a sneeze or cough, and his head felt so heavy with congestion that he could barely keep it upright. Or maybe that was the exhaustion. He’d spent most nights tossing and turning, unable to sleep because he kept alternating between shivering and sweltering.

He didn’t understand why Shiro could get over the cold in just four days even while being stressed about finals while Keith only seemed to be getting worse. He coughed into his tissue, frowning at the phlegm that emerged. Ew.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that he had half an hour before the exam started. Just enough time to stop at the campus’s café to grab a tea to help soothe his aching throat and hopefully clear out some of the congestion that was making his head feel all muddled and foggy.

Of course, going to get tea meant that he had to go outside into the cold. He coughed roughly into his scarf as he bundled himself up and exited the building into the bitter wind.

He was shivering fiercely by the time he made it to the coffee shop, quickly ordering and then moving to wait for his tea by the counter. Right as they called his name he was assaulted by an intense sneezing fit, the expulsions so violent that he had to brace himself on a nearby chair so he wouldn’t fall over with the force of it.

“ _esshHISSSHUH! ESCHIH! Heh-ATSHEW!_ ”

Once he finally finished he righted himself, removing his face from his scarf where he’d buried it, and walked to the counter to grab his drink. He ignored the dizziness that came with being fully upright, his head swimming with the congestion that he’d sniffled back after the fit. If he could get through this exam then he could take a short nap afterwards as a reward before he went back to studying for his other two exams.

He sipped at the tea as he walked quickly to the science building, careful not to spill it on himself, though he had a suspicion that that might help his shivering.

The test was a nightmare. He couldn’t make the words stay still on the page, and he kept having to cough and sneeze, which made other students glare viciously at him, so he began to stifle them out of respect for his fellow test takers.

He probably did decently enough if he was being honest with himself, the professor liked him and he had almost a perfect grade in the class, so as long as he didn’t get a zero on the exam he’d likely keep his A. That didn’t stop him from making himself miserable during the test. Regardless of the extremely low stakes, Keith couldn’t let himself put mediocre effort into an exam. He worked as hard as he could to make the words make sense, head throbbing in protest, eyes aching for sleep, but Keith wouldn’t give in.

When he’d finally finished and turned in his test, receiving a worried look from the professor once he saw his sorry state, he trudged through the frigid air to his dorm.

In the hall he could barely find his keys, his movements were clumsy and he was too lightheaded to see without black spots blocking certain parts of his vision. He finally opened the door and leaned heavily on the wall, allowing his backpack to fall to the ground heavily.

“Keith!”

Uh oh. Shiro was there.

His massive boyfriend came dashing through the small living room area, a giant grin on his face.

“Sh-shiro? _Cough_ what are you d-doigg here?”

Shiro’s puppy-like excitement faded when he heard Keith’s exhausted, congestion-ridden voice.

“Oh Keith, baby, what happened?”

“Dothigg happeded, Shiro. I’mb very tired, so I’mb goigg to tagke a very short dap add thend study for mby physics examb.”

“Keith…”

Shiro gave him a pleading look, and Keith relinquished control of his body long enough for the larger man to guide him to the couch and gingerly drape a blanket over his shivering form, but Keith refused to give up. He needed to study or he’d fail his exams.

“How did you get so sick, honey? Nobody’s been sick recently on campus that we hang out with…”

“ _Hihh_ I’mb n- _nahh_ dot sigck, Shiro. Just really, r _hh_ eally tired.”

Shiro smiled a bit at the hitching voice, tapping Keith’s nose lightly to make him sneeze, his grin fading when he felt the intense heat emanating from his boyfriend.

While Keith was stuck in a never ending loop of sneezing, Shiro rushed to get the thermometer.

“ _esshHISSH’EW! ESCHIH’HEW!_ Sh- _HH’KISHH’SH!_ Shiro, where are you g-goigg? _Heh…_ ”

Shiro returned to see Keith still in the throes of the fit, and he felt awful about starting it. Placing his finger under the red, twitching appendage, Shiro brought Keith closer to his body, giving the still-shivering man access to his heat.

“ _Ihh-Hh…Hih! Hahh…_ ”

Keith’s nose finally stopped rebelling while Shiro rubbed his finger beneath it, and Keith began to doze, content that the expulsions had calmed down. Under the warmth of the blanket he felt his desire to study slowly slipping away. He was so exhausted.

He was annoyed when Shiro began nudging his shoulder a bit,

“Keith, honey, please wake up. I need to take your temperature. You’re running pretty hot over there.”

Keith glared up at him but opened his mouth enough for Shiro to put the device under his tongue.

While they waited for the thermometer to do its job, Shiro began to speak lightly,

“Oh honey, you caught this from me, didn’t you? I knew I should have been more careful with my germs. I came over here after I woke up this afternoon to try to surprise you with a romantic evening before you hit the books again, but you aren’t fit for anything but bed right now.”

Keith’s eyes widened at that, and he shook his head vigorously, stopping when the dizziness took over again.

The thermometer beeped and Shiro frowned down at the numbers glowing on the screen.

“Whassit say?”

“That you shouldn’t have left your dorm this morning, Keith.”

“Heh. S’fuddy because I stayed ub all dight studyigg id the library,”

Keith giggled, beyond relieved that he didn’t have to try to hide this from Shiro.

“You really need to go to bed and sleep this fever off, but you probably won’t do that, huh?”

Keith shook his head gingerly, wincing when Shiro stood abruptly. Where was his heat source going? Was he angry?

“Shiro, where-”

It was the only thing Keith could say before he was thrown forward with a coughing fit, aching ribs protesting at each paroxysm. Tears gathered in his eyes from both exertion and misery, it was bad enough that he was so miserably sick, but now Shiro was apparently angry at him and wouldn’t take care of him.

Once the coughing died down, he tried to get up from the couch to go find Shiro, only to slump back onto it when his beleaguered legs refused to support his weight.

He felt more tears falling down his cheeks, too exhausted to lift his arms and wipe them away, he let them wash down his face and tickle his neck until they reached his shirt.

He sat like that for a while, the shivering returning because he’d knocked the blanket off in his desire to go find his boyfriend.

Shiro returned, arms laden with an arsenal of supplies, to see Keith sprawled on the couch, shivering, with tears staining his face.

Oh man.

He set down his supplies and replaced the blanket over his boyfriend, quickly darting to the small kitchen to put on the kettle for tea.

“Keith, honey. I need you to wake up. Your fever is pretty high so I need to get some meds in you.”

Keith’s eyes fluttered open,

“Y-you came back, a-are you ndot aggry at mbe adybore?”

“No, Keith. I wasn’t angry to start, I just got worried when I saw your fever was so high and I figured you’d be too out of it to notice I was gone. I got you a bunch of stuff.”

“Shiro, I still deed to- _cough_ -study.”

He croaked, once again dissolving into a miserable fit of coughs. Shiro rubbed his back as he rode it out, sniffling afterwards but still looking defiant.

“I know you need to study, baby. That’s why I brought you all this stuff. I need to keep you comfortable while I help you study.”

“Really? You’re dot godda bake be go to bed?”

“No, not yet. But you will sleep tonight, do you hear me? I pulled enough all-nighters for the two of us, and I wasn’t even sick anymore. You must be miserable.”

“Hodestly? I amb. Your cold really sucks ass.”

Shiro winced, hanging his head in shame.

“But you’re godda help mbe get better, right? There’s do ndeed to look so upset.”

Keith reached out, hand a bit shaky from the light shivers that tore through him, and cradled the larger man’s cheek in his hand,

“I’mb ind your care from dow od, okay?”

Shiro huffed a laugh at Keith’s dramatics, tucking his arm back under the blanket.

“Yes you are, and my first order as your new caretaker is that you blow your nose so I can understand what the fuck you’re trying to say.”


End file.
